Residents reminded of state’s lesser-known pioneers

By BILL ELLZEY Correspondent

Wednesday

May 9, 2007 at 7:28 AMMay 9, 2007 at 8:20 AM

"A little known fact is that the Germans -- to whom we attribute a greed for power and aggrandizement at all costs today, may be given credit for colonizing the first settlement outside of New Orleans, in Louisiana."

So began Eugene Dumez’s address to the Wednesday, Feb. 14, 1940, meeting of the Houma Rotary Club.

Dumez, then secretary of the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce, was known for his interest in the history of the state and region.

His was an interesting topic.

The United States was not yet at war, but Germany was threatening to overpower the rest of Europe.

Most of his audience was surprised that the earliest Louisiana colonists had been German, settling years before the Acadians arrived.

Editors of the Houma Courier apparently acquired Dumez’s written 2,500-word address and published it in its entirety. Roughly half of it is reprinted here. The rest will likely be the subject of another article.

"Bienville assigned the German colonists a location 35 miles up the Mississippi river," Dumez continued, "at Bonnet Carre Point which is now the little village of Lucy on the west bank of the river in the parish of St. John the Baptist.

"This settlement was known as the Karlstein Settlement. The coast as far as the village of Wallace was later called the German Coast and it became so prosperous that it was later called 'La Cotte D’Or’ or the 'Gold Coast.’

"The German colonists arrived on the 4th day of June 1721, stopping at New Orleans where they met other German emigrants who had returned from Arkansas."

"Why did the Germans leave the Fatherland? Who induced them to emigrate to the New World? None other than the notorious Scotch financier and swindler, John Law, who headed the Western Company, or Compagnie des Indes.

"Investors in Law’s bubble lost their all, and the finances of several European countries were brought to ruin. However, John Law had secured a trade monopoly from France and was granted valuable concessions with privileges of not only giving lands away on certain terms and conditions but also of selling outright.

"For these grants and privileges, John Law’s company obligated itself to bring to Louisiana at least 6,000 white people and 3,000 negro slaves.

"Law had printed and distributed widely in Germany and other countries circulars telling of the wonderful opportunities offered settlers in Louisiana.

" 'The soil,’ the pamphlet stated, 'is extremely fertile. Four crops a year can be raised. The abundance of the country cannot be easily imagined.

There is also some game which every person is permitted to kill: Leopards, Bears, Buffalos, Deer, Indian Hens, Snipe, Turtle Doves, Partridges, Wood-pigeons, Quails, Wild Cats, Parrots, Buzzards and Ducks.’ "

The description of the soil and the animal life was accurate, but Dumez said the John Law pamphlets promised much more.

"The principal inducements, however, were the minerals, described as follows: 'The land is filled with GOLD, SILVER, COPPER and LEAD. In Louisiana we will surely draw pieces of SILVER out of the earth. After enjoying all of these blessings, we will hunt for HERBS which the Indians will make known to us. Soon, we shall find healing remedies for all SICKNESSES and most-dangerous wounds. YES, also infallible cures for the fruits of LOVE.’

"Why," Dumez continued, "did the Germans fall for these alluring and gullible promises?

"The 30-year war (1618-1648) between Germany and France had just ended with the French armies victorious. The provinces of Alsace and Lorraine were annexed to France and the vanquished Germans there were oppressed and suffered from famine, pestilence and religious persecution.

"It is no wonder then that they had lost all courage and eagerly read and absorbed the printed circulars from John Law’s company.

"From unimpeachable French testimony we learn that 10,000 Germans left their homes for Louisiana. However, only a small number of them reached our shores.

"In the French ports of Brest and La Rochelle, while awaiting the departure of vessels, the emigrants lay crowded together for months, were insufficiently fed and epidemic diseases carried many away. Others, becoming discouraged, gave up the idea of emigrating to Louisiana and remained in France."

Dumez described a deadly ocean crossing. "On the voyage across the sea, many others died of privations and sickness. Martin speaks of 200 Germans who landed out of 1,200.

"Chevalier Soniat du Fossat, French naval officer, who settled in Louisiana about 1731, in his synopsis of Louisiana says that 6,000 Germans left Europe for Louisiana. Of these, only about 2,000 reached the shores of the colony.

"No human fancy can imagine the hardships which these German pioneers suffered even after they had survived the perils of the sea, epidemics and starvation. No wonder that so many perished. Had they been less hardy, not one of these families would have survived."

Dumez further described colonists who were ill-prepared to tame Louisiana’s wilderness.

"The land assigned to them was virgin forest in the alluvial bottoms of the Mississippi. Giant trees stood there as if from eternity and defied the axe of man.

"Here also were thick bushes and shrubs and impenetrable running and climbing vines under which lurked hostile animals and savage men, leopards, bears, panthers, wild cats, snakes and alligators.

"A scorching sun, to which was added the miasma arising from the disturbed virgin soil and the floods of the mighty river -- all these combined to destroy the work of man -- and man himself.

"When the land was cleared, the tilling of the soil began, but with no plows nor horses to draw them. The census of 1731 shows that ten years after the arrival of the Germans there was not yet a single horse on the German Coast.

"The only agricultural implements available were the pick-axe, hoe and spade. Rice, corn, beans and game constituted the daily fare and Mississippi river water the drink of the colonists.

"In spite of the hardships which the German pioneers endured, their energy, industry and perseverance conquered all.

"Early travelers who came down the Mississippi describe the neat appearance of the little homes which stood on both banks of the river and they also told how these thrifty Germans rowed down to New Orleans in small boats with some of their produce -- vegetables, corn, rice and later indigo, to sell their goods on Sunday mornings in front of the cathedral, and how, at times, when nonproducing New Orleans in vain waited for the provision ships from France or San Domingo, these German settlers more than once saved the city from famine."

It would be 1765 before the Acadians, expelled by the British from present-day Nova Scotia, Canada, began to arrive in Louisiana and be assigned raw lands upriver from the German Coast.

But that is another story.

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